Working

I am settling in to my new surroundings and getting adjusted to the time change. Last night I slept for 11 hours straight. I had quite the week between the wedding and moving here and I think everything finally caught up with me. I spent a little time figuring out the electricity without blowing up the house and managed to charge my cell phone and computer. For those of you who were worried, my curling iron is working here!!

Today I met my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. They drove to Jerusalem and brought me a few things that I needed (decent pillow, hangers, clock etc). We went out for a nice lunch in a quaint little shopping district that is about a 5 minute car ride from here. It was nice to be out and about. They then brought me home because I had to report to work at 3:00.

A little more about work. As expected "work clothes" are scrubs but they are pretty loose about a dress code and I've been wearing jeans and a hospital jacket over my top. Some staff wear scrubs, some jeans and some a combination so I have not figured it out yet. The children are all chronically ill. As mentioned, they all spend at least part of the day on a respirator (some are on it continuously) and they all have trachs. All of the problems are due to disease or genetic issues. Two children have SMA which is a muscular dystrophy like illness and they are both on continuous respirators. One of these children is 2 years old and the other is a beautiful 5 year old. She is the one I have connected with the most because she is mentally intact although she cannot move at all or speak. She communicates by moving her eyes sideways for no and up and down for yes. She has a beautiful smile, rich brown eyes and she LOVES Dora. In my continuing efforts to discover Zach's breaking point, I have just asked him to search for Dora stickers and a Dora puzzle to bring to Geneva with him. I did a Winnie the Pooh puzzle with her tonight. I would hold up a puzzle piece and move it around the table until it was in the place she wanted it to go and we got it done. I will save my stories about the other children for another posting. I think the work will be rewarding and the staff is very nice. Tomorrow is my first "day" shift and it is my first day that is not Shabbat so it should be different for me. The children will be going to school and therapies.

I hope all is well there and you are enjoying my experiences so far.

Sue